Sunday, September 11, 2011

Gender and Leadership Styles

Before I delve into leadership styles for women, we first need to understand a bit about how both our gender and our workplace influence not only our choice of behavior, but whether it's effective or not.

It’s difficult to determine the impact of gender on leadership behavior, in part because of the simultaneous effect of gender roles and organizational roles. Even though we may strive to perform in a genderless manner, we cannot escape the fact of our sex and its effect on our behavior as well as on others' expectations of us. Men and women who achieve leadership status in an organization may behave similarly because of norms regulating the performance of tasks in that role. A PI, for example, will prepare grant proposals, develop and carry out research, hire and supervise a staff, write and publish papers…all activities required to be successful in this role and that are essentially genderless. However, there is always leeway in how these activities are carried out. A PI may be friendly or reclusive, ask colleagues for advice or not, be aggressive or timid, be autocratic or democratic in making decisions, work alongside staff or have distinctly separate activities. Exactly how someone carries out various tasks may be influenced by gender, either due to their own gender-related tendencies or to organizational expectations of their performance in that position.

Characteristics relevant to leadership that are more often ascribed to men are termed agentic: assertive, controlling, ambitious, dominant, independent, daring, self-confident, competitive. A leader must speak and act confidently, capture and hold the attention of others, generate a viable plan of action (and vision), and motivate subordinates to carry out tasks. In contrast, characteristics more often associated with women are communal in nature: sensitive, sympathetic, kind, warm, affectionate, nurturing, and modest. Behaviors arising from such characteristics might be: being a good listener, supporting others, expressing concern for others’ welfare, being cooperative, avoiding attention, speaking softly or tentatively. These features are counter to what is traditionally expected in a leader, but are not entirely without merit in that role. For example, some effective leaders are good at “reading” other people, especially body language.

I am talking here about general qualities and perceptions related to gender; there are obviously exceptions, with men having communal qualities and women with agentic qualities.

We can see how a female, in attempting to meld her naturally communal qualities with those qualities associated with a leader, would develop a somewhat different leadership style than a male whose natural inclinations already coincided with strong leadership qualities. A female who is naturally assertive, out-spoken, and competitive would perhaps develop a leadership style more like that of a male with similar tendencies. We could also envision a male with communal qualities becoming a leader with a mixture of qualities more like the first female.

Problems arise mostly because of other people’s expectations: their beliefs are upheld with men in the role of leader, but not with women. This is partly due to traditional views of the female gender role, which is seen as inconsistent with the leadership role. Here’s where the Double-Bind comes in. There is often prejudice against female leaders, because leadership abilities are more stereotypic of men. However females who exhibit strong leadership qualities are also viewed less favorably because their behavior is counter to what is expected of the female gender. We can't win.

It’s easy to see, then, that a woman who behaves in a stereotypically female fashion will not be viewed as an effective leader, whereas a woman who exhibits mostly male-stereotypical qualities (assertive, competitive, etc.) will also be viewed as a flawed leader (or at least not readily accepted). Research shows that women who adopt a very authoritative and directive leadership style often encounter resistance, whereas men with exactly the same qualities are gauged to be highly competent leaders. Some women try to take charge in a very authoritative fashion, in an attempt to show they are strong leaders, but this approach backfires for them.

There is thus the possibility that a woman who exhibits the strong qualities of a leader, but also shows some communal behaviors (warm, cooperative, nurturing), will have better success. However, she will still be at a disadvantage because her supportive behaviors may be interpreted as weaknesses (in a leader). However, this may depend on specifics of which leadership features are adopted (e.g., autocratic vs. democratic) in combination with the communal qualities she exhibits....and what the organizational expectations are.

Do I know women who exhibit these different styles of behavior, either in leadership positions or who are potential leaders? Yes, I can think of examples for all of these. See the next post for more on this topic.

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Welcome

New title, same content. This blog discusses some of the challenges scientists and students of science face every day. Although some of the content is focused on women in science and our particular experiences, much of it is relevant to anyone seeking to achieve their full potential in life and work. For more information about the motivations for the blog, see this post.

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Identification of Famous Female Scientists

This list identifies the photos of famous female scientists posted here.

1. Barbara McClintock, American cytogeneticist and Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine (1983), discovered transposition, “Jumping Genes”2. Jane Goodall, American primatologist, studied chimpanzee social and family interactions for 45 years in Tanzania.3. Jane Lubchenco, American marine ecologist and environmental scientist, recently appointed by President Obama to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.4. Mary Leakey, British anthropologist and archeologist who discovered the first skull of a fossil ape, also studied tools and fossils of ancient hominids in Olduvai Gorge.5. Rosalind Franklin, British crystallographer and biophysicist who made contributions to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite.6. Ada Yonath, Israeli crystallographer known for pioneering work on the structure of the ribosome; awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009).7. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American medical physicist and co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique.8. Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist whose work influenced the 1960s sexual revolution, “Coming of Age in Samoa”9. Mary Kingsley, early British explorer, naturalist, and writer who greatly influenced European ideas about Africa and African people; studied cannibal tribes and collected specimens of fish.10. Rachel Carson, American marine biologist and nature writer whose work is credited with advancing the global environmental movement; best known for her book “Silent Spring”, which describes problems caused by synthetic pesticides.11. Annie J. Easley, African-American computer scientist who worked for NASA; leading member of the team that developed software for the Centaur rocket stage.12. Dian Fossey, American zoologist who studied gorillas in Rwanda, murdered in 1985, possibly by poachers.

12.Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), science lead of the Avatar Program to explore Pandora, a moon about 4.3 light years from Earth; Avatar (2009).

If you are in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, or math) field, how would you characterize your social skill level? If non-STEM, jump to the poll below. Pick the choice closest to your overall behavior:

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“The lecturer should give the audience full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction.” ~Michael Faraday

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"There are two types of Ph.D. thesis: perfect and submitted."~Anon.

"Beware of the pursuit of the Superhuman; it leads to an indiscriminate contempt for the human"~George Bernard Shaw

"As we know from the work of certain fundamental physicists, people like Einstein were very dependent upon conjuring up visual images in order to imagine things which otherwise were not easily formulated." ~ Jonathan Miller

"The imagination exercises a powerful influence over every act of sense, thought, reason,-- over every idea."~Anonymous Latin Proverb

"The best thinking has been done in solitude.~Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor.

"The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it." ~ Pearl Buck (US novelist in China, 1892-1973)

"Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them." ~John Maxwell

"Children, don't speak so coarsely," said Mr. Webster, who had a vague notion that some supervision should be exercised over his daughters' speech, and that a line should be drawn, but never knew quite when to draw it. He had allowed his daughters to use his library without restraint, and nothing is more fatal to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library. ~Robertson Davies, Tempest Tost

"You go to school, you get a master's degree, you study Shakespeare and you wind up being famous for plastic glasses." ~Sally Jessy Raphael

"I've yet to be on a campus where most women weren't worrying about some aspect of combining marriage, children, and a career. I've yet to find one where many men were worrying about the same thing." ~Gloria Steinem

"Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, 'She doesn't have what it takes.' They will say, 'Women don't have what it takes.'" ~Clare Boothe Luce

"It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes." ~Sally Field

"The art of being a woman can never consist of being a bad imitation of a man" ~Olga Knopf

"I think the key is for women not to set any limits." ~ Martina Navratilova

“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.” ~ Malcolm S. Forbes

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"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust

"Most great men and women are not perfectly rounded in their personalities, but are instead people whose one driving enthusiasm is so great it makes their faults seem insignificant"~Charles A. Cerami

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"There are only three ages for women in Hollywood - Babe, District Attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy." ~Goldie Hawn

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"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty." ~Henry Ford

"To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. " Sun-tzu in The Art of War; Shambhala, 1991

"I have frequently been questioned, especially by women, of how I could reconcile family life with a scientific career. Well, it has not been easy." Marie Curie (1897-1956)

"The mythology of science asserts that with many different scientists all asking their own questions and evaluating the answers independently, whatever personal bias creeps into their individual answers is cancelled out when the large picture is put together. This might conceivably be so if scientists were women and men from all sorts of different cultural and social backgrounds who came to science with very different ideologies and interests. But since, in fact, they have been predominantly university-trained white males from privileged social backgrounds, the bias has been narrow and the product often reveals more about the investigator than about the subject being researched." Ruth Hubbard (1924), American Biologist